The seasons change

Central Heating on last night! 

First time since about February.

So to cheer everyone here's a pic of a nice hot beach in Australia where they are just coming into their summer. For those already in Australia, it is forecast for 3 degrees C here tonight, and I think it was 4 last night. I now you think 14 is cold, but spare a thought for the UK!

Otherwise, life proceeds as normal. We watch the figures for disease going up and wonder if our five days in Scotland is going to happen or not. Are we heading for a general lockdown again? I hope not.

 Ever since I watch Monarch of the Glen years ago, and more recently on BBC4, I wanted to go. So I booked in January for a week in October. Hopefully, we'll still get there. Isolated cottage in the woods. No neighbours. Shouldn't be a problem. There was a re-run of A Murder is Announced with Joan Hickson as Miss Marple on tv the night before last, and lo and behold, the police inspector went to Ardverekie to interview the millionaire sister! "Whoa! He's gone to Glenbogle!" I cried. I do hope we manage to get there. In case there might be difficulties shopping for food there, I've been building up a small cache of necessaries to take with us. Lots of rice and pasta....
 

Does publishing have a future?

 When Lockdown began on 23^rd March, Waterstones closed its 280 branches. Independent bookshops did the same. Supermarkets focussed on food and stopped ordering from publishers. Amazon did the same.

Publishers furloughed staff because there was little work to do. Newspapers saw the dwindling numbers of books for review. Publication of new titles has been delayed, and there is no news of when everything will be, if ever, back to normal.

People claim books have helped them get through lockdown. Most publishers record an increase in e-books sales via their website and sometimes wonder if Amazon’s monopoly can be broken. Literary agent Johnny Geller has been saying for 20 years, "Why not go into direct selling?”

Some publishers dismiss the idea as too complex and expensive, but others are talking about it after Amazon turned off the supply tap.

Authors are used to self-isolation, but it is hard to know what to write. Some who have been recently published feel their books have disappeared into a black hole. Others think that fewer books on the scene have helped them. The book promotion trail is non-existent, and literary festivals have fallen by the wayside.

Some independent bookshops ie Forum Books in Corbridge, have got together a series of events on Facebook Live. There are other online events around, but the usual camaraderie of a drink after the talk is over is just not possible.

Supermarkets and Amazon are getting back to normal now. Commercial fiction is doing well. In some quarters there is an assumption that the market will be down 70% in the second quarter of the year, and 50% in the third. They hope the fourth quarter will be close to normal.

 Recent experience has shown that people can work from anywhere and more can be done online. The next decade may be interesting as far as publishing is concerned. It would be nice to see some regional  offices scattered around the country rather than everything being centred in London.

Covid-19 and Libraries

Have you used your library during lockdown?

If you did not, perhaps you should think about it!

Libraries across England have reported a surge in online borrowing during lockdown.  Seeking escapism and comfort, people are borrowing online e-books, e-magazines and audiobooks.

In the three weeks after lockdown began, 120,000 people joined libraries. It is to be hoped the change will continue when restrictions are lifted.

The pandemic could be a watershed moment for libraries. You can access a library from the safety of your own home. Weekly digital loans from libraries across England doubled in the three weeks after they were closed on 23 March.

In April, three times as many e-books, e-magazines and audiobooks were borrowed, and the trend does not seem to be slowing. In some libraries the figures are up on last year by 600%; Borrowing e-books by 35% and audiobooks 20% in the past two months.

No one ever agrees with booklist selections, but here are some great reads, selected by BBC Culture. (The best books of 2020 so far)

§   

§  Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld

§  How Much of These Hills is Gold by C Pam Zhang

§  American Poison by Eduardo Porter

§  You People by Nikita Lalwani

§  Rainbow Milk by Paul Mendez

§  Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby

§  A Children’s Bible by Lydia Millet

§  If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha

§  The Glass Hotel by Emily St John Mandel

§  Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler

§  Collected Stories by Lorrie Moore

§  Sharks in the Time of Saviours by Kawai Strong Washburn

§  Weather by Jenny Offill

§  Real Life by Brandon Taylor

§  Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

§  Motherwell: A Girlhood by Deborah Orr

§  Apeirogon by Colum McCann

§  Cleanness by Garth Greenwell

§  Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall

§  The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel

§  House of Glass by Hadley Freeman

§  ctress by Anne Enright

§  Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

§  Where the Wild Ladies Are by Matsuda Aoko

§  The Death of Comrade President by Alain Mabanckou

§  Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong

§  A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende

§  Our House is on Fire by Greta Thunberg et al

The last few weeks

The Indie Author Online Festival  kicked off on Saturday, and my tiny piece came yesterday at 11am.

I never use Skype or Zoom, so I was nervous about the technology of using Streamyard, but it proved quite easy - except that my camera is obviously set to time out after 30 minutes.    It took me a little while to realise that all I had to do was click the mic/camera icon to reinstate it.

As for the content,  I think we should have done shorter snatches with more interplay between the personalities, but it seemed to go off quite well. I was surprised at the paucity of questions both in advance and during the hour we were live, because Regency is such a popular genre. In a way it is a pity that many people have gone back to work  this week - a pity only in the sense that our potential audience vanished!  I'm sure everyone is glad to go back to a life that is a good deal more normal than the last 9 weeks have been. 

Having said that, dog walking and a once weekly grocery shop has been the extent of my life lately, and it isn't that different from normal. The family is in Australia and we don't socialise all that much. Bill used to do the shopping at the supermarket 10 miles away, but somehow, I can't remember why, I got elected to do the shop at the local co-op half a mile away. I was there on the dot of opening 8am Wednesday morning and back home by 8.45! I think it might be difficult to persuade Bill back into the old way of him going to Tesco!

Walking Tim in the silence of lockdown was so different ~ only an occasional car, and birds singing.  Lots more walkers, joggers, cyclists than usual but they are pretty silent anyway. The air was brighter and much more pleasant. Of course we had the usual tearaways out in their ancient up car with its go-faster-stripes, streaking around the empty roads in defiance of the electronic sign at the roundabout at the bottom of the hill saying "Stay Home."

On the whole, for me,  the 9 weeks have gone pretty quickly.